Of Snails and Skunks

I had the strangest day yesterday & it fit in quite nicely with the book I currently have checked out of the library: Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. It started with finding a snail in the middle of my backyard, his shell shattered on the concrete path. I’m guessing a sea gull must have dropped him & without his protective little home, he wasn’t looking long for this world baking in the hot sun. I scooped him up & placed him in a shady part of the garden, doused him with some water & then sat in awe watching his weird little tentacles-horns feeling all around him. It may have had something to do with me being hopped up on cold meds, but I think I could’ve sat there all afternoon & watched him, just like I would have done when I was a kid.

I did manage to pull myself away & buckled down to get some work done (hello shiny new magnets ready for the markets this weekend!). When I stepped out on the porch with the puppies for our evening constitutional, I got a second helping of nature – a skunk was wandering across my neighbor’s front lawn. With my 2 little dogs, this might not have been a problem, since I was able to quickly turn & stuff them back inside the house. Unfortunately I was also watching my friend Julie’s dog – this lovely golden ball of fur:

He saw the skunk before I did & tore off after it, ripping the leash right out of my usually tightly-gripped hand. He got sprayed so badly he was in complete agony, rolling around on the grass in my front yard. I spent the rest of the night hosing him down, shampooing him with a mixture of baking soda & peroxide & dog shampoo (thank you internets!) & trying not to barf. The smell that close up? Horrrrrribble. It smelled so bad, in fact, that my knight in shining armor wouldn’t get anywhere near the backyard when I sent him to the store for more peroxide. He would come as far as the side of the house, but stopped a full 10 feet from our back gate & wouldn’t budge. My hero! haha

Fortunately the peroxide/baking soda combo neutralizes the smell A LOT better than the old tomato juice trick & we’re all feeling much better today, though I can still smell it on my hands. And now probably my keyboard. Maybe having a cold isn’t such a bad thing right now!